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//August
2, 2000
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
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...in their Mothers Footsteps?Central Park incident indicates that young women don't see the danger women still facefrom Gendergappers
So. How many times have you heard about someone "following in their mother's footsteps? True we are hearing now of daughters following in their FATHER'S footsteps and who knows what another generation will bring, but at present, the tide is against that kind of turning. The media spin is in full cry now reporting how "most" women want to return to home and family and leave the "career" they chose. We are told that "doing a man's job in the real world" is just too much for women's frail psyche and frailer body. "Biology IS destiny and now women are agreeing," chortles the growing mob of I told you so's_, as they joyously re- play the warnings of the 50's and 60's telling of the dire consequences ahead for women who "work". Exhaustion? Burn out? Anxiety? Oh, yeah, that and more, but NOT, we say, due to working outside of the home. It is also not so much the task of having in effect 2 jobs either. It is the pressures exerted on us in our jobs, our professions AND OUR GENDER, in the work- place and outside it, that is wearing the hell out of some of us and we are aware of the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. This sword has many forms in the memory of all the older generation of Mothers. Who among us did not shudder over the "Mob Violence at Central Park"? Everything came together with painful sharpness. If daughters still don't "get it", then they'll NEVER get it. Mothers and grandmothers knew the terrible risks they were taking when they fought for their freedom and independence; when they fought for the right to control their own bodies and their own minds; when they fought for equality in jobs, education, pay and all human rights. The daughters in the park that day did not follow in their mother's footsteps but threw caution to the winds. After all, they were born free, equal etc. They weren't wimps like their mothers. They had rights. Things have changed. "We don't bow and scrape to the man like you did. We can wear what we like and go where we please." So when the men in the crowd stole bottles of water from a truck and started to spray the women to wet their clothing so it would cling to their breasts, the women joined in the FUN. As an NBC reporter declared, "Women who had been sprayed just kept coming back through the line of men JUST ASKING FOR IT." A psychologist interviewed declared that this increased the "sexual tension" in the crowd of men. And the mob of men later concurred. "The bitches were asking for it. They wanted it so we gave it to them." What they gave to the daughters was mob violence where males are freed from any sort of inhibition. All resentments surfaced and they were culturally justified in what they did. Our culture supports and recognizes that "BOYZ JUST GOTTA HAVE FUN" - *and it's FUN to humiliate women*. Religions teach the superiority of the male and the rightness of victimizing uppity women. Let the games begin. That DEVIL --> woman (EVE), made them do it. Get the bitch! While a few males in the crowd took videos, others surrounded individual women and tore off their clothing. Breasts were crushed, pinched and yanked at. Vaginas were filled with painfully, jabbing fingers. Not all of the men in the crowd were testosterSTONED. Some fought to free women from the mob and help them to safety. As it turned out, the "dubious safety" of the POLICE. One wonders if any of these daughters, ignored by the police, remembered the mother's stories about how police most always sided with the husband in domestic disputes. How after the police left they were subjected to even more bat-tering from their spouses. Probably not. It's just not in the daughter's history. Many appear to be confident that they will always have the rights they THINK THEY HAVE NOW. They think the mothers are silly for telling them that their civil rights are ALWAYS AT RISK. *They do not believe that their reproductive freedom is at risk since it has always been there for them*. They giggle and say, "Dubya would be so cute as president" and "We must bring character back into the White House". They further exhibit the effects of media brainwashing as they parrot the lies and misinformation spread by the partial birth religiosa. They seemingly have no idea that a woman's health or very life may depend on keeping late term abortions available. But so many of the mothers still see the sword and their human rights suspended over their heads by a hair. They know that AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS AT RISK IF DUBYA BUSH IS ELECTED PRESIDENT AND BRINGS IN HIS RELIGIOUS RIGHT, ANTI-WOMAN CADRE OF ANTI-CHOICE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. Some people fool themselves into thinking that all he would do is make late term abortions illegal but they are wrong. ALL forms of birth control are targeted. *Texas JUSTICE will prevail throughout this country of foolish daughters.* Our Women's Clinics would no longer be protected by law from the vicious harassment of anti-choice fanatics. Health pro- fessionals who work in them will be targeted for criminal action. Hate crime legislation will be repealed. How many clutching hands and probing fingers of men in mobs will it take for the daughters to consider the value of their mother's footsteps?
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